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GEN. JACKSON AND JAMES BUCHANAN. 



LETTER FKOM FHAI^CIS F. BEAlIt. 



TO THE PUBLIC 



Mr. Buchanan, tbrougli some of his vaTtisaus, uses 
the shitdow of a great uame to dim the bright origi- 
aal. Andsew JacksoD, the child of a Mr. Donelson, 
adopted because a kin to Mrs. Jackson, is now induc- 
ed to sign his name ts letters given to the press, de- 
tracting from the reputation of General Jackson. To 
make the attempt effecluil, the first effort is to im- 
pair the staiidmgof tbe iritnds to whom he bequeath- 
ed the duty of defending his character, whenever un- 
justly assailed. 

Mr Jackson, who thus lends his name to this im- 
pious work, cannot be held entirely accountable. He 
is a weak minded, credulous, dreamy schemer, forever 
brooding in silence over visionary projfcts, with 
which be cheats himself and does mischief to others ; 
and when awakened to a sense of what he has 
done, is sorry for it. He is inoffeosive, quiet, and 
well disposed to do what he is persuaded to do by j 
those around him ; is very willing to oblige, but, from 
Utter wantof judgment, is scarcely cinacious of what 
is right for others or gDod for himself. General 
Jackson had an excessive teuderness for him. While 
he loved others attached to him for the ability and 
energy they exerted in any cause in which he was en- 
gajed, he loved ''Andrew" more than all, because 
left to his tenderness by his wife, and because he was 
helpless and dependent. 

While Biddle and his Briareus bank waged war 
apcnhim — while Calbouu and his Nullification con- 
spir.icy endangered the Usiion — while the giants C'ay, 
Webster and Adams made every step of his adminis- 
tration a struggle — A.ndrew, although in the prime 
of life and living in the White House, was uncon- 
scious of the strife, and to those around him seemed 
wholly ignorant that there was in all this anything 
of importance. Altjiough I was always on familiar 
and kindly terais with him, and the more so, as the 
busiuess of the White House made it a solitude to 
bim, I Jo not remember that I ever knew him, in the 
saost exciting times, to open his mouth about politics ; 
&ad now, for tbe first time during the twenty-six years 
I have known him, he, of a sadden, is brought out in 



Mr. Buchanan's press as a political gladiator, to strike 
unconsci.iusiy the reputation of the father who gave 
him his fortune, and to destroy tbe character of one 
whom he thought most likt !y to dufend it. Now I 
hold Mr. Jackson in every sense incapable of cuu- 
ce'ving, much less execu'ing this attempt; and I 
shall treat it, as tbe work of Mr. Buchauau and his 
emissaries. They are the interested parties. They 
have the motives for the undertaking, and tbe intritrue 
developed in the letters having Mr. Jackson's signa- 
ture, is of a piece with all Mr. Buchanan's manajo- 
ment. 

The pretext for bringing Mr. Jackson before the 
public as my assailant is to repel this passage given 
from a letter of Gen. Jackson to Major Lewis : 

" Your observations with regard to Mr. Buchanan; 
are correct. He showed a want of moral covmge m 
the aflUir of the intrigue of Adam-' aud Cl.iy — did no6 
do me justice in the expose be then made, and I -dm. 
sure at)out that time did believe there was a peffect 
understanding between Adams and Clay about the 
Presidency and tbe Stcretarv of St^ite. This I am sure 
of. But whether he viewed that, there was any cor- 
ruption in the case or not, I know not, but one tbiog 
1 do kuow, that he wlsked me to combat them with, 
their own, weapons — that wok, let my friends say if I 
was electnl I would make Mr. Chiij Secretary of Stnte. 
This, to me, appeared deep corruption, and I repelled 
it with that honest indignation as [which] 1 thought 
it deserved." 

I knew nothing of this publication, nor whence the 
extract from Gener.il Jack'^on's letter was obtained. 
Mr. Jackson, and those who obtained his signature to 
the following commen , knew th .t ihe letter quoted 
from was not wr.tten to me, nor furnished by me, 
but by Major Lewis; > et they so drectly pointpd at 
me in their animadversion as to make tbe inference 
inevitable to others, that it was derived from me: 

" The undersigned, as the adopted son, executor and 
trusted friend of General Jackson, protests most 
solemnly against this unscrupulous use ofthQprivate 
and confidential correspondence of bis father, and he 
appeals most confidently to the public to sustain, him 
in this protest ; he, himself, was the repository of 
moat of his father's private puters, and has never 
consented to' the publication of any of tJiem, because 



^^'^'. 

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he believes DO such addition can be made, with jus- 
tice to the memory of the deceased, until the men 
who served with him have pas.std from the stage of 
action. It would, however, be nufair to the feelings 
of those who may have been touched by the extracts 
or full letters from General Jackson, heretofore pub- 
lished, to withhold the testimony of the undersigned, 
that up to tbe close of his lite he entertained for 
President Polk and Hon. James Buchanan the high- 
est esteem and affection. In many conversations dur- 
ing his declining years, when in the full freedom of 
fireside ease, he spoke freely of their eminent services 
and moral worth ; on no occasion did he ever inti- 
mate to his family that his confidence lu tbeia had 
abated, or his kindly feelings towards tteni under- 
gone any change. It is well known to all who were 
well acquainted with General Jackson, that be clung 
with intense pertinacity to the interests of those 
' whom he regarded as triends — as xoinewJiat depend- 
ants, and whom he had raised up by his patronage.' 
These persons frequently (as can and might easily be 
shown) appealed earnestly to him for assistance in 
advancing their own schemes and views, even to the 
close of his life. Whilst suffering under a painful, 
withering disease, and earnestly pressed by every 
artful suggestion, he would have been more than 
human if he had not permitted expressions of momen- 
tary irritation to creep into private letters, and the 
fault of the expression was not in him who wrote, 
but rather ia those whom be unwisely trusted. 

"The letter of General Jackson in regaid to Mr. 
Buchanan, written in February, 1845, (dated 2Sth,) 
extracts of which have been recently published, is 
precisely one of the character, and written under the 
circumstances above alluded to, and did not contain 
aoy deliberate conviction of his mind, as is simply 
shown by his cordial treatment of Mr. Buchanan dur- 
ing his whole administration — his appointment to 
Russia — his subsequent recommendation of him to 
others — and the fireside conversations with his fami- 
ly, to which I have before alluded. 
' " It is not the intention of the undersigned in this 
puhlication to interfere in tbe political conflicts of the 
dav, or to do anything further than to protect the 
reputation and fame of his father, and preserve the 
consistency and harmony of a character dear to the 
whole American people. Andrew Jackson." 

Although this was expressly applied to me by the 
Administration Organ at Washington ; yet, as my 
name was not used in it, and I saw that the object 
was to embroil me with Mr. Jackson, for whom I felt 
great kindness, and who was considered by me the un- 
witting instrument of artful intriguers, I concluded 
not to notice it. The contrivers, on this failure, 
inducedMr. Jackson then to putout this direct attack : 

" Gen. Jackson, in one of his wills and testaments, 
had left his papers and documents to his friend Mnjor 
John H. Eaton, but subsequently changed it to Mr. 
Blair. In speaking of his papers, he often asked me 
if I would like to take charge of them. My reply 
was, that I was young and inexperienced, and would 
greatly prefer, if it met his judgment, to have them 
left to an able and well-tried friend. Very soon 
thereafter Mr. Amos Kendall came on to the General, 
and solicited the loan of sutlieient of his letters and 
papers to compile his history and life. Ttie request 
was acceeded to with pleasure, and the most impoi t- 
ant of bis papers and documents were handed over 
to Mr. Kendall, and the balance would have been sent 



on to him afterwards but for the arrival of Mr. Blair. 
Mr. Blair questioned the General abouthispapersand 
the writing of his life and history, stating that 
if he would leave them with him he would care- 
fully arrange them for Mr. Bancroft ; that he 
(Blair) had retired from politics to the shades of 
Silver Springs, and would guard scrupulously the sa- 
crednessof his memory and fame. My father with 
pleasure consented, and directed me after his decease 
to forward all of the important documents retained 
to Mr. Blair, except some private and confidential cor- 
respoDder.ee, which I was instructed to reserve. Mr. 
Kendall still ret iins all the pupers which he received, 
and Mr. Blair some of less' importance. General 
Jackson lequested Mr. Kendall to retain tbe papers 
he had in his possession until he completed his life 
and history. It was no reflection upon any of Gene- 
ral Jackson'e immediate family,'that such a disposi- 
tion of his papers was made. It would have seemed 
indelicate in them to have made the )ise of them that 
others might very properly have done. 

" In conclusion, I respectfully ask the public to ob- 
serve why this vindictive personal abuse of me, and 
for what purpose. Simply because I deemed it pro- 
per and right, in justice to the reputation, memory, 
and fame of my father, when I saw the abuse that Mr. 
Blair had made of private documents, and the scan- 
dalous misuse of the following extract from one of 
my father's private and confidential letters to a sup- 
posed friend, published recently ip the Bepuhlimn 
Banner, written February 28, 1845, some few months 
before his death, I saw proper to remonstrate in a 
public manner against it." 

This story confutes itself — my visit to the Hermi- 
tage was in the spring of 1843. I had not then " re- 
tired from politics to the shades of Silver Spring." I 
was in the midst of that struggle against the Tyler 
administration which I hoped would result in the 
restoration of Mr. Van Buren and the democracy to 
power. I had no expectation then of retiring to pri- 
vate life, or of having leisure " carefully to arrange" 
General Jackson's papers for Mr. Bancroft. At tho 
suggestion of Mr. Van P.uien, in 1836, I mentioned 
Mr. Bancroft, the historian of the United States, to 
General Jackson as one who, if he had access to his 
papers, would make them useful to the history of the 
country, and connect with it a memoir of his life, 
which would make imperishable the public labors to 
which it had been devoted. General Jackson told 
me in reply, then, that he had promised the use of 
his papers to Mr. Kendall for the work I proposed for 
Mr. Bancroft. 

When I went to the Hermitage in 1843, seven years 
after this conversation, I knew Mr. Kendall had these 
papers in his possession, and the thought of obtaining 
them for Mr. B.mcroft, whicti was dismissed in 1830, 
could not, under such circumstances, have occurred. 
I am certain that nothing was said during my stay at 
the Hermitage in reference to changing the disposi- 
tion of the papers already made by General Jackson, 
and it will be seen by the terms of the bequest made 
in 1845 to me, years after my visit, that there is no 
reference in it to the temporary use of them granted 



to Mr. Kendall, or that suggested to assist Mr. Ban- 
crofc's historical labors. 

The General closes his letter of the 9th of April, 
1845, (commenfcino^ on the intrigue by which Mr. 
Calhoun and his friends, combining with Messrs. 
Polk, Buchanan and others, had defeated Mr. "Van Bu- 
ren's nomination at Baltimore, and concerted to sup- 
plant the Globe by a nullifying organ at Washington,) 
thus ; 

" This may be the last letter I may be able to write 
you; but live or die, I am your friend, (and never 
deserted one from polkit.) and leave mv papers and 
reputation in your keeping. As far as justice is due 
to my fame, I kao?r you will shield it. I ask no i 
more. I rest upon truth, and require nothing but 
what truth will mete to mp. All my household join 
me in kind wishes for your health and prosperity, 
and that of all your family ; a,nd that you may tri- 
umph over all enemies. May (jod's choicest bles*- 
iogs be bestowed upon you and yours through life, 
is "the prayer of your sincere friend, 

" Andrew Jacksox. 

"F. P. Blaib, Esq." 

This letter, given at length in that addressed by 
me to the New York meeting in April last, exposing 
the conspiracy which severed the Jackson democra- 
cy and created a southern sectional party to rule the 
confederacy, shows on the face of it the motives 
which induced General Jackson to consign his papers 
to me. He saw in the course held by the government 
against the political organ he had established at 
Washington, that it would pass into the hands of bis 
enemies. Having confidence in my fidelity, and see- 
ing me stripped of the influence which the position he 
had conferred, gave, to support his principles, he be- 
queathed his papers to me, and the charge to defend 
his cause and his character. 

This trust makes it my duty to expose the effort 
now made by Mr. Buchanan's partisan press, the 
Nashvilie Union, associated with its ally, the official 
organ at Washington, to impair the confidence of 
the country in General Jackson's exalted character 
for veracity. The principal agent in this attempt, as 
I learn from a letter in reply to one written to obtain 
the information, is the Hon. Cave Johnson, Mr. Bu- 
chanan's colleague in Mr. Polk's cabinet. This is 
confirmed by an extract given in the ofiicial organ 
from a letter of this gentleman, by which it appears 
he would excuse the attack made on Gen. Jackson's 
integrity by saying — ^' I shall not lelieve tliathe [Gen. 
Jackson] ever so expressed himself, until I see the letter 
in, his own handivriting ;" and yet he urges on the 
adopted son of Gen. Jackson to publish his views in 
derogation of Gen. Jackson's written testimony, with- 
out venturing to look at it to see if it is " in his own 
handwriting." although invited to do so. I give in 
advance to Mr. Buchiinau's colleague the same invi- 
tation in respect to all the manuscript evidence I have 
used, or may hereafter use, to defend him against his 



traducers. The assailant takes yet another and more 
successful mode of escaping the odium of impeaching 
the memory of a great man, by using his own illus- 
trious name to sanction its degradation. It is like 
using the feather from the eagle's wing to give flight 
to the shaft that reaches him in the zenith, and brings 
him to the earth. 

The paper prepared to bring down Gen. Jackson's 
fame from its height, opens with a solemn formula, 
which seems designed to make the impression that 
he had commissioned bis adopted namesake to sign 
the death warrant for his memory after the body was 
laid in the grave : 

" The undersigned, as the adopted son, executor 
and trusted friend of Gen. Jackson, protests most 
solemnly against this unscrupulous use of the private 
and confidential correspondence of his father, and he 
appeals most confidently to the public to sustain him 
in this protest ; he himself was the repository of most 
of his father's private papers, and has never consent- 
ed to the publication of any of them, because he be- 
lieves that no such addition can be made with justice 
to the memory of the deceased until the men who 
served with him hove passed from the stage of action." 
This protest insinuates what "the adopted son, 
executor, and trusted friend of Gen. Jackson" is 
drawn out to prove, while he is made to deprecate it. 
"He never consented to the publication of any of his 
father's private papers, because he believes no such addir 
tion can be mad^ ivith justice to the memory of the de- 
ceased, until the men who served zvith him have passed 
from the sUtge of action." 

Does not this intimate that Gen. Jackson in his pri- 
vate papers has said of those who served with him that 
which cannot bear the light while they live to repel it? 
And then this " adopted son and trusted friend " is 
made to say that his father, " in the full freedom of 
fireside ease," " and in m'lny conversations,'' had said 
that he had " tlie highest esteem and affection for Mr, 
Buchanan," and spoke freely of " his eminent services 
and moral worth," while his letters, written with his 
own hand, and when he felt the hand of death upon 
him, reaflirm, after twenty years of calm considera- 
tion, what he had publicly pronounced to be his de- 
liberate conviction in regard to Mr. Buchanan's con- 
duct in 1S25. And what he denounced to Mr. 
Buchanan himselt^ when he made the proposal, to be 
" such means of bargain and corruption he would see 
the earth open and swallow both Mr. Clay and his 
friends and myself with them," rather than use, he 
adhered to at the close of Ufe— and yet "the adopted 
son and trusted friend " is made to say that the same 
sentiment as to Mr. Buchanan's conduct, expressed 
twenty years later by him in a letter to Major Lewis, 
is not " the deliberate conviction of his mind," that 
when the General wrote that Mr. Buchanan was 
capable of " deej) corruption," in regard to the Chief 
Magistracy of his country, he was in his fireside con- 



Tersations extolling Mr. Buchanan's " moral wortli." 
He is made artful!}' to imply that the publication of 
Gen. Jackson'a contideutial cc>^^e^pondeDce was a 
breach of trust, revealing this contradiction, when it 
was only so upon the supposition that the adopted 
son's oral account of the General's real estimate of 
Mr. Buchanan's character is the only true one, and 
not the written statement under his oprn hand. 

He is made to claim for himself the right of bein^ 
■what he calls " the Repository'' of Gen. Jackson's pi- 
pers, when he knows that they were bequeathed to 
me and that he wrote to me immediately on the Ge- 
neral's death that it was his dying order to him as 
Executor, to deliver them over to me, ami that if he 
retaiusany of them he violates that iujuuction, and is 
himself guilty of a breach of trust. Thej- make him 
charge it as "an abuse tluit Jlr. Blair had i/tade of frb- 
■vate Jocuments," although they were exclusively of 
public interest and when the Orst publication of tbem 
was made, it was accompaincd with this express per- 
mission : 

" D any of my opinions may be useful to sustain the 
great Republican cause, and open t'.e eyes of the peo 
pie to their best interests, iu bnngmg back the admi 
uistratii n of our Governmrut to the real readiug and 
principles of the Cousiitudon as explained and prac- 
tised by the sages who founded it, it is due trout me 
to ihe people ttiat my opinions, if desired, should be 
knosvn to them. * * * * 

''Sinceielv your friend, Andrew Jackson. 

" To F. P Blaip., E>q." 

The publication of what he wrote about the intrigue 
which defeated his election in the house of Rejjre- 
sentatives, Mr. Colton, in his life of Clay, shows, was 
directly invited by him, iu a card to the Nashville 
Lf/iion, closing with these words; 

" If General Hamilton or any one else has a letter 
from me on this subject, all they have to do is to ap 
ply to him lor it. A" for mijseJf, 1 have no necrets, and 
do notfear rhc puhlkatwn <f all I have ecfr wrUten on 
thit or any othtr suhject. "Anorew Jacksox." 

Although I had not the least agency in prjdueiug 
this evidence of General Jackson's dissatisfaction 
with Mr. Buchanan — did not, indeed, know of the ex- 
istence of the letter — its publication, and the attempt 
to discredit it by drawing up insidious statements for 
ft e signature of an adopted son, to prove that the fa- 
ther had expressed opinions entirely incompatible 
with his written declarations made at the same time, 
cilis on me to examine whether General Jackson's 
written averment is not sustained by the history of 
the transaction referred to, and whether the trngges 
tions put into the the mouth of the adopted son, when 
tested by it, can avail to weigh down the veracity of 
the father, and to place Mr. Buchanan's above it, I 
will arra;- recorded facts and a train of undisputed 
circumstances, apart from General Jackson's own tes- 
timony, which establish every assertion of his letter 
to Major Lewis. 



I feel more imperatively called to the discussion of 
this subject because Mr. Colton, in his Life of Clay, 
published since General Jackson's death, has given a 
most unjust and distorted view of if, to tarnish the 
General's fame, founding Lis argument on the cor- 
rupt proposals said to have been mad.^ by Mr. Bu- 
chanan to Mr. Clay, but which the latter, at the 
" earnest entreaty" of the former, kept profoundly 
secret while the General lived. From Mr. Coiton's 
own book, I will coHecfc a succinct statement of all the 
testimony bearing on the essential points, which will 
show how thoroughly General Jackson stitnds vindi- 
cated as regards Mr. Clay, and how perfectly he is 
justified in the opinion entertained of Mr. Buchanun, 
although kept in absolute ignorance of the remark- 
able overtsire of Mr. Bachauao, proposing the pre- 
miership to Mr. Clay on the contingency of General 
Jackson's election. Without encumbering this paper 
with the arguments of any of the parties to this coe- 
versy, I will give the issues, as made between the 
principals, and the statements of the iudiyiduala out of 
vvhuse action the controversy grew. The testmaony 
of these parties, as copied by Mr. Colton from the 
authentic documents put into his hands by Mr. Clay, 
amply vindicate General Jackson. 

It is not my purpose to inculpate Mr. Clay. The 
grave has closed over him and G^n. Jackson, and 
should close the contest between the rivals which 
they chose to wage in person. But ttie oriijinatcT of 
the feud, who survives and uses the pliable namesake 
of one of them to lend him the support of his name 
to damage the reputation of the man whom he should 
venerate as a lather, can claim no such immunity. 
The political intriguer, whose approaches Gen. Jack- 
son, in his own emphatic mannei-, rebuked at the in- 
stant, must now meet the General's reiterated repro- 
bation, inscribed by his own hand in his dying hour, 
written to a distant fiieud, not with leports and hear- 
says from his fireside in vvhicli he is made to coutra- 
dict himself, but by an appeal to the recorded facts 
on which Gen. Jackson founded his opinions. Hei"e 
is the history of the events written out by the actors 
in them ; 

Carter Beverly, being on a visit to the Hermitage 
with other Virginians, interrogated Gen. Jackson as 
to the overtures made to obtiiin his promise of the 
State Department, to secure votes for himself as 
President. 

Gen. Jackson then related the circiimstancfS at- 
tending Mr. Buchanan's application to him, repeatiog 
the conversation between them. Mr. Beverly, in a 
letter to a friend in North Carolina, immediately re- 
ported what Gen. Jackson had said. This being dis- 
puted, Mr. Beverly appealed to Gen. Jackson for a 
written statement. It is thus quoted in Colton'a 
"Life of Clay": 



" Hermita(3e, Jnne 6*1), 1827. 
" Early in January, 1825, a member of Cingress of 
biuh lespectab lily vis'ted me one niornino, and ob 
served, that be had a couimiiuiciuion ii^ w.is desirous 
to make to me; that be was uitoinied there was a 
great iutrigue K*"Ofr on, and that it was light I should 



" General Jackson having at last voluntarily placed 
himself in the attitude of my pubic accuser, we are 
now f lirly at issue. I rejoice that a specific accusa- 
tmn, bv aresponsibIea(CUber, has at length appeared, 
though at the distance ot near two years and a half 
smce tlie chmge was first put forth through Mr. 



be iiiforme'd of"it; "thath" came as a friend, and let 1 Geoige Kremer. It will be universally admitted tbat 
me rtceive the commumcation as I might, the friendly i the accusatiou is of the mf-st serious nature. Hardly 
mo'jves through which it was made, be hoped would 1 any more atrocious could be preferred against the re- 
prevent any ch"anffe ot friendship or feeling in regard j presentativeof the people m hiscfficial character. The 
to bim. To which I rephed, from his high stanoing charge in substance is tbat dellb^rate propositions of 



as a gentleman and mtniber of Congress, and from 

his uniform friendly and gentlemanly conduct toward 

myself, I could not suppose he would make any com- 

muiiication to me which be supposed was improper. ! oljeit was, by these ' means of bargain and corrnp- 

Thevefore, his motives being pure, let me think as I | tion,' to exclude Mr. Adams from the department of 



bargain were made by my congressional friends col- 
lectively, through an autborized and distinguished 
member of Congress, to General Jackson ; that tbeir 



niigbt of the communication, my feelings towards 
hiui would remaiu unalfi;red. The gentleman pro- 
ceeded: He said he had been iiifoniied bv the friends 
of Mr. Clay, that the friends of Mr. Adams had made 
overtures to them, sayiug, if Mr. Clay and bisfr ends 
■would unite in the aid of Mr. Adams's election Mr. 
Cay should be Secretary ot State; tbat the friends 
of Mr. Adams were urging, as a reason to induce the 
friends of Mr. Clay to accede to their propos't'on, 
that if I were elected President, Mr. Adams would be 
continued Secretary of State, (inuendo, there would 
be no room for Kentucky); tbat the friends of Mr. 
Clay stated, the west did not wish] to separate from 
the west, and if I would say, or permit any of my 
confidential friends to say, that in case I were elected 
President, Mr. Adams should not be continued Sec- 
ret irv of State, by a complete^union of Mr. Clav and 
his friends they would put an end to the Presiden- 
tial contest in one hour. Arid he was of opinion it 
was right to fight such intriguers with their own 
weapons. To wnich, in substance, I replied, that in 
politics, as in everything else, my guide was princi- 
ple; and contrary to the expressed and unbiassed 
will of the people, I never would step into the Presi- 
dential chair; and reqiif-sted him to say to Mr. Clay 
and bis friends (for I did suppose he had come from 
Mr. Clay, although he used the term of 'Mr. Clay's 
friends) that before I would reach the Presidential 
chair by such means of bargain and corrnntion, I 
would see the earth open and swallow both Mr. Cliy 
and his friends and myself with them. If they had 
not contide'nce iii me to believe, if I were elected, that 
I would call to my aid in the Cabinet men of the first 
virtue, talent and integrity, not to vote for me. The 
second day after this communication and reply, if 
was announced in the newspa)>ers that Mr. Clay bad 
come out openly and avowedly in favor of Mr. 
Adams. It roay be proper to observe, that, on the 
supposition that Mr. Clav was cot privy to the propo- 
sition stated, I may have done injustice to him. If 
so, tlie gentleman informing rne can explain. 

"I am, very respect tullv, 

" Your most obedient servant, 
^Signed) "AxnREw Jackson. 

"Mr. Carter Beverley." 

—lOoUon's Clav, page 324, doI. 1. 
This was shown to Mr. Clay's friends at Wheel- 
ing, being received the night preceding Mr. Cliy's ar- 
rival there, and was putintohishandsby them tben^xt 
morning. On Mr. Clay's arrival at Lexington, Ken- 
tucky, whither he was going, he put out a card deny- 
ing what he called the charges of Gen. Jackson. He 
said: 



srate, or to secure my promotion to office, and that I 
was privy and assented to these propositions and to 
the employment of those means. 

" Such being the accusation, and the prosecutor 
and "he issue betsveeii us, I have now a right to ex- 
pect that he will substantiate his ciiarges by the exhi- 
bition of satisfactory evidence. In that event, there 
is no punishment tiiat would exceed the measure of 
my <'ii>nce. Id the oppos'te event, what ought to be 
the judt;ment of the American public is, cheerfully 
submitted to tbeir wisdom and justice. 

(Signed.) "H.Clay. 

" Lexington,'29th June, 1S27." 

[ColtorVs Ciau, pages Z?A-2,. Vol.\'\ 

In reply to this, General Jackson denied that he 
was an accuser, but simply the narrator of facts in re- 
ference to the disposition of Mr. Clay and His friends 
as to the Presidential election, coming from a source 
on which he bad reliance — be repeated the informa- 
tion fius derived, and then gives the proof of it de- 
manded by Mr. Clay in this paragraph : 

" This disclosure was made to me by Mr. James 
Buchanan, a member of Congress from Pennsylvania, 
agentltmanof thefir^t respectability and intelligence. 
The evening before he had communicated substan- 
tially the same nroposition to Major Eaton, my col- 
league in the Senate, with a desire, warmly manitest- 
ed, that he should communicate with me, and ascer- 
tain my viens on the subject. This be declined doing, 
suijeestiug to Mr. Buchanan that he, as well as him- 
self, could converse with me and ascertain my opinion 
on the matter — rhoueh, from his knowledge of me, be 
thought he couid conjecture my answer, that I would 
enter into no eugageiijent whatever. It was the morn- 
ing succeeding this interview, after Major Eaton had 
objected to converse with ine on the subject, and be- 
fore I had set out from my lodgings to the Capitol, 
tbat Mr. Buch>inan came to visit me, and where the 
eiiiiversation I have stated took place. The answer 
returned has already, been published, and need not 
be here repeated. * * * * * 

" Under all the circumstances appearing at the 
time, I did not resist the impression that Mr. Bu- 
chanan fiad approached me, on the cautiously-submit- 
ted proposition of some authorized person ; and, there- 
fore, in giving him my answer, did request him to 
say to Mr. Clay and his friends what that answer had 
been. Whether the communication was made to Mr. 
Clay and his friends, I know not. This, though, I do 
know, that, while the opinions and course of Mr. Clay, 
as to the election, were but matter of conjecture with 
many, at and before this time, very shortly after this 
conversation took place, his and his friends' opinions 



became forthwith matter of certainty and general 
knowledge. Still, I have not said, nor do I now Siij, 
that the proposal made to me, was wiih the ' privitj' 
and consent ' of Mr. Clay; neither Lave I said that 
his friends in Congress made proposiions to me." 
* * * -x- * * 

(Signed,) "Andrew Jackson. 

"Hehmitage, July 18, 1827." 

[ Coltoii's Olay, pages 333-4. Vol, 1. 
Mr. Buchanan, thus called out, replied in the Lan- 
caster Journal, and after stating that he was prompt- 
ed in his movements by a rumor ' that General Jack- 
son had dduTiilned, should he be elected President, to 
continue Mr. Adams Secretary of State,' he comes to 
the point put in issue, and thus relates the circum- 
stances which brought bim with his proposals to 
General Jackson : 

" In the month of December, 1824, a short time 
after the commencement of toe session of Congress, 
1 heard, among other ru'.oors then iu circulation, that 
General Jackson had deteroaiuod, should he be elect- 
ed President, to continue Mr. Adams Secretary of 
State. Although I ftU ctrtaiu he h.id never intimat- 
ed such an intention, yet I was sensible thiit nothing 
could be better calculated both to cool the ardor of 
his friends and inspire his eriem!es with conhdence, 
than the belief that he had already selected his chief 
Competitor for the highest office within his gift. I 
thought General JacKson owed it ta himself, and to 
the cause in which his political friends were engaged, 
to contradict this report; and to declare that he would 
not appoint to that otfice the man, bo* ever worthy 
he might be, who stood at the head of the most for- 
midable part of Lis political enemies. These being my 
impressions, I addressed a letter to a confidential friend 
in Pennsylvania, then and still high in office, and ex- 
alted in character, and one who bad ever been the de- 
cided advocate of General Jackson's election, request- 
ing his opinion and advice upon the subject. I receiv- 
ed his answer, dated the 27 tb of December, 1824, upon 
the 2'.)th, which is now before me, and which strength- 
ened and confirmed my previous opinion. I then final- 
ly determined, eitherthat I would ask Genera! Jackson 
myself, or get another of bis friends to ask him, whe- 
ther he had ever declared he would appoint Mr. 
Adams his Secretary of State. In th'S manner I 
hoped, a contradiction of the report might be obtained 
from him, or he might probably declare it was not 
his intention to appoint Mr. Adams. 

" A short time previous to the receipt of the letter 
to which I have referred, my friend, Mr. Maikley, and 
myself got into conversation, as we very often did 
both before and after, upon the subject of the presi- 
dential election, and concei niog the person who would 
probably be selected by Gentral- Jacks-on to fill the 
office of Secretary of State. I feel siucerely sorry 
that I am compelled thus to introduce his name, but 
I do so with the less reluctance because it has al- 
ready, without any agency of mine, found its way 
into the newspapers, in connection with this transac- 
tion. 

"Mr. Markley adverted to the rumor, which I have 
mentioned, and said it was calculated to injure the 
General. He observed that Mr. Clay's friends were 
warmly attached to him, and that be thought they 
would endeavor to act in concert with him at the 
election; that if they did so, they would either elect 
Mr. Adams or General Jackson at theii* pleasure, but 



that many of them would never agree to vote for the 
latter, if they knew he had predetermined to pre- 
fer another to Mr. Clay for the first office in his gift ; 
and that some of the friends of Mr. Adams had al- 
ready been holding out the idea, that in cas:c he were 
elected, Mr. Clay might, probably, be offeiftd the situ- 
atiim of Secietary ot State. 

" I told Mr. Markley that I felt confident Gene- 
ral Jackson had never said he would appoint Mr. 
Adams Secretary of State, because he was not in the 
habit of conversing upon the subject of the election ; 
and if he were, whatever might be his secret 
intention, he had more prudence than to make such a 
declaration. 1 mentioned to him that I had been 
thinking, either that I would call upim the General 
myself, or get one of bis other friends to do so, and 
thus endeavor to get from him a contradiction of the 
report, although 1 doubted whether he would hold 
any conversation upon the subject. 

'' Mr. Markley urged me to do so ; and observed, 
if General Jackson had not determined whom he 
would appoint Secretary of State, and should say 
that it would not be Adams, it might be of great ad- 
vantage to our cause for us so to declare, upon his 
own authority. We should then be placed upon the 
same footing with the Adams men, and might fight 
thorn with their own weapons. Thai the western 
members would naturally prefer voting for a western 
man, if there were a probability that the claims of 
Mr. Clay to the second office in the government should 
be fairly estimated ; and that if they thought proper 
to vote for General Jackson, they could soon decide 
the contest in his favor. 

" A short time after this conversation, on the 30th 
of December, 1824, (I am able to fix the time not only 
from my own recollection, but from letters which I 
wrote on that day, on the day following, and on the 
2d of January, 1325,) I called upon General Jackson. 
After tlie company had left him by which I found 
him surrounded, he asked me to take a walk with 
him; and while we where walking together upon the 
street, I introduced the subject 1 told hira I wished 
to ask him a question in relation to the Presideutial 
election ; that 1 knew he was unwilling to converse 
upon the subject; that, therefore, if he deemed the 
question improper he might refuse to give it an an- 
swer ; that my only motive in asking it was friendship 
for him, and I trusted he would excuse me for intro- 
ducing a subject about which I knew he wished to be 
silent. 

" His reply was complimentary to myself, and 
accompanied with a request, that I would proceed. I 
then stated to him, there was a report in ciiculation, 
that hehiid determined he would appoint Mr. Adaina 
Secretary of State, in case he were elected President, 
and that I wished to ascertain from him whether be 
had ever intimated such an intention; that be must 
at once perceive how injurious to his election such a 
report might be ; that no doubt there were several 
able and ambitious men in the country, among whom 
I thought Mr. Clay might be includecl, who were as- 
piring to that office; and, if it were believed he had 
already determined to appoint bis chief competitor, 
it might have a most unhappy efF-ect upon their ex- 
ertions, and those of their triends; that, unless he 
hfid so determined, I thouaht this report should be 
promptly contradicted under his own authority. 

" I mentioned it had already done him some inju- 
ry, and proceeded to relate to' bim the substance of 
tbe conversation I had held with Mr. Markley. I do 
not remember ^whether 1 mentioned his name, or 



merely described him as a friend of Mr. Clay. After 
I had finished, the General declared he had not the 
leAst objection to answer my questioo; that he 
thought well of Mr. Adams, but had never said, or 
intimated, that, he would, or would not, appoint him 
Secretary of State ; that these were f-ecrets he would 
keep to himself — he would couceal them from the 
very hairs of his head ; that if he believed his rijjht 
hand then knew what his left would do on the subject 
of appointments to ofBce, he would cut it off and 
cast it into the fire; that if he should be ever 
elected President, it would be without solicitation 
and without intrigue on his part; that he would then 
go into office perfectly free and untramellt^d, and 
would be left at perfect liberty to fill the offices of 
the government with the men whom, at the time, he 
believed to be the ablest and the best in the country. 

"I told him that his answer to my question was 
such a one as I had expected to receive, if he an- 
swered it at all ; and that I had not sought to obtain 
it for my own satisfaction. I then asked him if I 
were at liberty to repeat his answer. He said, I was 
at perfect liberty to do so, to any person I thought 
proper. I need scarcely remark that I afterwards 
availed myself of the privilege. The conversation 
upon this topic here ended, and in all our intercourse 
since, whether personally or in the course of our cor- 
respondence, General Jackson never once adverted to 
the subject, prior to the date of his letter to Mr. 
Beverley. 

" I do not recollect that General Jackson told me 
I might repeat his answer to Henry Clay and his 
friends ; though I should be sorry to say he did not. 
The whole conver.sation being upon a public street, 
it might have escaped mv observation. 

* ^ * * * 

(Signed) "James Buchanan. 

"Lancastkr, 8th August, 1827." 

ICoHon's Clay, pages 33:5-4, Vol.1.'] 

Mr. Markley, the party referred to by Mr. Bu- 
chanan as the friend of Mr. Clay, states that Mr. Bu- 
chanan came to his room, he believes, but cannot 
say with certainty, on the 30th December, 1824. He 
was alone, and repeats what Mr. Buchanan says 
about his solicitude for General Jackson, and the ru- 
mors about his making Mr. Adams his secretary, and 
then continued his account of Mr. Buchanan's 
conversation thus: 

"Mr. Buchanan stated, that he bad written to, or 
received a letter from, a mutual friend of ours in 
Pennsylvania, on the subject of the Presidential elec 
tion and cabinet appointments, and that he had de- 
termined to call uooii the General himself, or to get 
Major Eaton to mention to him the reports that were 
in circulation, and obtain, if he could, a contradic- 
tion of tbeui. Mr. Buchanan also asked, if I bad 
Been Mr. Clay, and whether 1 had any conversation 
with him, touching the Presidential election ? I re- 
plied that I had seen him in the house, but had had 
no conversation with him on that subject; but said, 
I was anxious to get an opportunity to have a conver- 
sation with him, as I felt a great anxiety that he 
should vote with Pennsylvania. Mr. Buchanan re- 
plied, that no one felt more anxious, for various rea- 
sons, than he did himself; that it was important not 
only for the success of Geo. .Jackson's election, that 
Mr. Clay should go with Pennsylvania, but on account 
of his ulterior political prospects — declaring that he 



[Mr. Buchanan] hoped to see Mr. Clay President of 
the United States, and that was another reason why 
he should like to see Mr. Clay Secretary of State, ia 
case Gen. Jackson was elected; and that, if he were 
certain that Mr. Clay's vie«s were favorable to Gen. 
Jackson's election, he would take au opportunity of 
talking with Gen. Jackson on the subject, or get 
Major Eaton to do so; that he thought, by doing so, 
he would confer a particular benefit on his country, 
and that he could see nothing wrong in it. Air. Bu- 
clianan iirged me to use no dehy in neelng Mr. Glut/. 
I told him' I would, and accordingly called upon Mr. 
Clay, at his boarding-house, I think the evening after 
this conversation ; but he was not at his lodgings- 
I called to ss^e him again, but he bad some of his 
friends with him, and I had no opportunity of con- 
versing with him, nor had I ever aoy conversation 
with him, until the evening of the lOth or 11th of 
January, prior to my leaving Washington for Penn- 
sylvania, to attend the courts in Montgomery count j^. 
The conversation I then had with him was of a very 
general character. No mention was made of cabinet 
appointments, and I did not ascertain which of the 
candidates Mr. Clav would support. 

" I have no recollection of anything being said, in 
the conversation with Mr. Buchanan, about the 
friends of Mr. Clay moving in concert at the election. 
I, however, distinctly recollect that we both express- 
ed an anxious hope that the West would not separ- 
ate from Pennsylvania. I have no recollection what- 
ever of having urged Mr. B. to see General Jackson, 
although I concurred in the propriety of his sugges- 
tion, that he should call to see him. Nor have I the 
faintest recollection of anything being said about 
fighting Mr. Adams's friends with their own wea- 
pons. If any such expressions were used I am very 
certain it was not by me. From the recollection I 
hare of the convermtion to which Mr Buchanan has 
reference, in his letter to the pulliG of the Sth of August 
last, my impressions are, that the object of his visit that 
evening was to urge the propriety of my seeing Mr. Oleiy, 
and to give him my mews as to the im/portance of his 
identifying himse[iF with Pennsylvania in svpport of 
General Jackson. I entertained no doubt that Mr. 
Buchanan was honestly determined, that no exer- 
tions, on his part, should be wanting, and that he felt 
confident he could speak with certainty as to the 
great mass of General Jackson's friends, that, in case 
of the election of General Jackson, ihey would press 
upon him the appointment of Mr. Clay as Secretary 
of State. 

" Mr. Buchanan concurred with me in opinion 
that Pennsylvania would prefer Mr. Clay's appoint- 
ment to that of any other person as Secretary of 
State, and from the obligation the General was under 
to Pennsylvania, that he would eo far to gratify her 
wishes, and that, therefore, he believed the Gerieral, 
if elected, would appoint Mr. Clay. 

****** 
(Signed) " Philip S. Markley. 

"■ Philadelphia, October 30, 1827." 

—IColtonls Clav-. pages 355-6, vol. 1. 

Here is Major Eaton's testimony touching the 
application made by Mr. Buchanan to him to sound 
General .Jackson as to his willingness to tender the 
office of Secretary of State as a make-weight in hia 
Presidential scale: 

" In January, 1825, a few days before it had been 
known that Mr. Clay and his friends had declared in 



favor of Mr. Adams, I waa called upon by Mr. Bu- 
chanan of Pennsvlvania. He sai<l it was prett}' well 
ascertained that overtures were makinu; by the fi iends 
of Adams on the subject of cabinet appointments; 
that Jackson should fij^ht them with their own wea- 
pon*. He said the opinion was, that Jackson would 
retain Adams, and that it was doing: him injury ; that 
the General shou'd state whom he would make Secre- 
tary of State, aud desired that I would name it to 
him. My reply was, that 1 was sat'sfied General 
Jackson would sav notbinsr on the subject. Mr. Bu 
chanan then remarked. Well, if he will merely say 
he will not retain Mr. Adams that will answer. I re 
plied, [ was satisfied General Jackson would neither 
say who should, nor who shfiuld not, be Secretary ot 
State, but that he (Mr. Buchamin) knew him well, 
and might talk with him as well as I could. Mr. Bu- 
chant n then suid, that on the next day, before the 
General went to the Senate, he would call. He did 
80, as I afterwards understood. * * * 
f Signed,) "John H. Eaton. 

" Franklin, Tennessee. September 12, 18'27." 

—IColton's Clay, page 358, vol. 1. 

It is clearly established, from Mr. Buchanan's own 
cautious, studiouslj'-guarded, constrained admissions 
— from the statement of Mr. Markley, whom he calls 
his friend and the friend of Mr. Clay in the transac- 
tion — from the testimony of Major Eaton, which was 
drawn up by him and put into Mr. Buchanan's hands 
the year before the latter tsjilained himself upon the 
subject — that Mr. Buchanan was the prime mover of 
the intrigue which General Jackson's frank declara- 
tion of the attempt made on him coerced to a devel- 
opment. From Mr. Buchanan's oa-n showing it is 
manifest, that he had a confidential correspondence 
with a friend in Pennsylvania on the subject of bring- 
ing the premiership to bear on the Presidential elec- 
tion — a correspondence which, while he admits i*8 
importance, he withholds from the public. It appears 
that this " determined" him to act on Gen. Jackson 
with a view to make the Secretary's appointment give 
direction to the Presidential election. It appears 
that he sought Mr. Markley at his own room, and, as 
Mr. Clay's friend, asked liis co-operation in the 
scheme, and urged him " to use no delay in seeing Mr. 
Clay." That the object of his (Mr. Buchanan's) visit 
(to Mr. Markley) that evening was to urge the proprie- 
ty ot his seeing Mr. Clay and to give him his view as 
to the importance of his identifying himself with 
Pennsylvania in support of General Jackson, and 
that his (Mr. Buchanan's) solicitude "was on account 
of his (Mr. Clay's) ulterior political prospects — de- 
claring that he (Mr. Buchanan) hoped lo see Mr. Clay 
President of the United States, and that was another 
reason why he should like to see Mr. Clay Secretary 
of State in case General Jackson was elected." 

It appears that Mr. Buchanan also attempted te 
enlist Miijor I aton, as the friend of General Jackson, 
ia carrying his point with him; that ho urged on 
him " that it was pretty tcell ascertained that overtures 
were making ly the friends of Mr. Adams on the sub- 



ject of Cabinet appointments— tluxt Jaclson should fight 
them with their own wcapom." 

It appears that Major Eaton declined the service 
propohcd, and that Mr. Markley failed, after making 
three attempts to accomplish anything favorable to 
Mr. Buchanan's design with Mr. Clay. It appears 
that Mr. Buchanan then made his movement imme- 
diately and personally on both Mr. Clay and General 
Jackson. It is now revealed, and in a written state- 
ment made by Mr. Clay, and given in Mr. Colton's 
Life of Clay, published while Mr. Clay lived, but 
since General Jackson's death, that Mr. Buchanan 
undertook the task of ascertaining how Mr. Clay 
would receive the teader made by him of the premier- 
ship in a Jackson cabinet. This account of the long- 
suppressed secret overture on the part of Mr. Buchan- 
an, testing Mr. Clay's inclinations, is marked 
throughout by italics, in the volume, to distinguish 
it from statements made by the author of the work: 
"Some time in January, 1825, and not long before 
'• the election of President of the United States by the 
" House of Representatives, the Hon. James Buchan- 
■'an, then a member of the House, and afterwards 
"many years a senator of the United States, from 
"Pennsylvania, who had been a zealous and influen- 
" tial supporter of General Jackson, in the preceding 
" canvass, and was supposed to enjoy bis unbounded 
"co'jfidence, called at the lodgings of Mr. Clay, in the 
"city ofWashington. Mr. CJay was at that time in' 
" the room of his only messmate in the house, his in- 
"timate and confidential friend, the Hon. E. P. 
" Letcher, since Governor of Kentucky, then also a 
" member of the House. Shortly after Mr. Buchan- 
" an's entry into the room, he introduced the subject 
"of the approaching Presidential election, aud spoke 
" of the certainty of the election of his favorite, add- 
" ing, that ' he wouid form the most splendid cabinet 
" that the country had ever had.' Mr. Letcher asked 
"'How could he have one more distinguished than 
" that of Mr. Jefferson, in which were both Madison 
"and Gallatin?' ' Where would he be able to find 
"equally eminent men?' Mr. Buchanan replied 
"that ' He would not go out of this room for a Secre- 
"tary of State,' looking at Mr. Clay. This geutle- 
" man [Mr. Clay] playfully remarked, that ' bethought 
" there was no timber there fit for a cabinet officer, 
" unless it were Mr. Buchanan himself.' 

"Mr. Clay, while be was so hotly assailed with the 
"charge of bargain, intrigue, and corruption, during 
"the administration of Mr. Adams, notified Mr. Bu- 
"chanan of his intention to publish the above occur- 
"rence; but, by the earnest entreaties of that gentle- 
" man, he was induced to forbear doing so." 

"The author has understood, that several times, in 
" later years, it has been intimated to Mr. Buchanan 
"that it might be his [Mr. Clay's] duty to publish 



9 



" these facts, and that he was dissuaded from it by 
"Mr. Buchanan." 

—lOolion's We and limes oJHmry Clay, paae 418. 

Mr. ColtoD yet retains the manuscript of this in Mr. 
Clay's handwriting, and to which " Mr. Clay appended 
"a note, advising him (Mr. Colton)toapply to Gover- 
" nor Letcher for further information. He according- 
" ly addressed Governor Letcher, and found his lips 
" sealed by a pledge of silence given to Mr. Buchanan." 

Governor Letcher applied to Mr. Buchanan in 1844, 
to be released from this pledge, which he declined in 
a letter, restating his promise, and insisting on his 
honor to observe it, in these words : 

" The publication, then, of this private conversa- 
tion, could serve no other purpose than to embarrass 
me, and force me prominently into the pejdmg con- 
test — which I desire to avoid. 

"You are certainly correct in your recollection. 
'You told me explicitly that you did not feel at liber- 
ty to give the conversation alluded to, and would not 
do so under any circumstances, without my express 
permission.' In this, you have acted, as you have 
ever done, like a man of honor and principle. 

" James Bochanan." 

The late contribution of Mr. Clay to the history of 
Mr. Buchanan's plot, with the refusal of the latter to 
let the whole be icnown by permitting Mr. Letcher to 
reveal the conversation held with him, if it had seen 
the light while General Jackson lived, would have 
confirmed the supposition on which he acted when 
Mr. Buchanan first approached him on the subject. 
He says: "I did suppose he had come from Mr. Clay, 
although he used the term of Mr. Clay's friends," 
and " therefore, in giving him the ansioer, did request 
Mm. to say to Mr. Clay and his friends, lulmt that an- 
swer had leen." This answer did not suit Mr. 
Buchanan's design, and hence it seems he forgot to 
give it to Mr. Clay, or that it was ever given to him, 
and forgot also his visit and proposal to Mr. Clay, 
BOW verified by Messrs. Clay and Letcher, and repeat- 
edly Sraw^Ai to Ais ret-oZ^tJciiow "several times in later 
years, it having leen iniimated to Air. Bvchanan 
that it might he his {Mr. Olay's') duty to publish these 
facts, hut that he tvas dissuaded from it by Mr. Bu- 
chanan." 

Unless Mr. Clay and GK)vernor Letcher have con- 
spired to fabricate a falsehood to impeach Mr. Bu- 
chanan, as he would have us believe, he did approach 
Mr. Clay to tempt him with the premiership. There 
are pregnant circumstances and other evidence to 
prove it. Mr. Markley repeats and insists on the 
fact that Mr. Buchanan " urged him to use no delay to 
see Mr. Clay" because, " if he were certain that Mr. 
Clay's views were /aoorable to Gen. Jaxhson's election, 
he would take an early opportunity of talking with 
General Jacison on the mhject, or get Major Eaton to 
do it." 



This shows that Mr. Buchanan was intent to ascer- 
tain whether "J/r. Clafs views icere favorable" be- 
fore he hazarded General Jackson's displeasure by 
proposing to him a somewhat corrupt process to reach 
presidential honors. He told Major Eaton that it was 
" pretty well ascertained that overtures were making by 
the friends of Mr. Adams." Why, then might he 
not make overtures in a delicate way to Mr. Clay 
He had urged Mr. Markley to do it. Mr. Markley'a 
three trials had proved abortive, and be had gone to 
attend his courts in Pennsylvania. The time of de- 
cision was approaching, and it was necessary, it any 
bargain could be struck to unite the great western 
rivals, Mr. Buchanan must himself be the go-between, 
Markley having failed to get the opportunity with 
Mr. Clay, and Major Eaton refusing to go to General 
Jackson. 

The great scheme which Mr. Buchanan had con- 
trived, to make his friend, Gen. Jacfeson, President, 
his friend Clay secretary— with the safe precedent in 
hand to assure him of the succession if crowned with 
success by his interposition, could hardly fail to put 
Mr. Buchanan in the line of heirship under the new 
dynasty. The Virginia triumvirate— Jefierson, Mad- 
ison, Monroe— had made an oflScial succession wh^ch 
ambitious politicians were eager to emulate. Mr. 
Buchanan resolved to court the good graces of Mr. 
Clay, in which he had already made some progress. 
He approached him Mv'iih.'' the safe precedent" in his 
hand, which he had previously told Mr. Markley 
would bring the Presidency to Mr. Clay after it. He 
spoke to Mr. Clay "of the certainty of the elec- 
tion of his fdvorite. Gen. Jackson, adding " that he 
would form the most splendid cabinet the country had 
ever seen." Mr. Letcher asked, •' how could he have 
one more distinguished than that of Mr. Jefferson, ia 
which were both Madison and Gallatin ?" Mr. Bu- 
chanan replied, " that he would not go out of this room 
for a Secretary of State" — looking at Mr, Clay. 

Mr. Buchanan has a cunning leer, with a cast of the 
eye, which renders it impossible to mistake the object 
of his address when he fixes his look. Hence, al- 
though Mr. Letcher asked the question, Mr. Clay saw 
that the reply was meant for him, and therefore tells 
us " that he playfully remarked that he thought there 
was no timber there tit for a cabinet officer, unless it 
were Mr. Buchanan himself." How Mr. Buchanan 
interpreted this playful compliment to himself, given 
in return for the earnest one placing Mr. Clay above 
the splendid statesman who adorned the State De- 
partment in Mr. Jttferson's time, is not left to con- 
jecture. He saw no repulse in the suggestion from 
Mr. Clay, which would assign to Mr. Buchanan him- 
self the place he wished to give to secure the election 
of President. If he should command for Mr. Clay 
what he himself was thought worthy to hold, it 



10 



would increase the obligation he sought to confer. 
Mr. Clay's remark was, doubtless, meant to draw him 
out further, and make bim show his hand fully, al- 
though I believe he never meant to accept it. Mr- 
Buchanan was not prepared for this. It was neces- 
sary, before he used names and proposed stipulations, 
that he should know how General Jackson would 
relish his plot; accordingly he went to the Gene- 
ral and broached it. That the proposal was received 
TN-ith a burst of indignation, Mr. Buchanan himself 
cannot conceal. So far from being willing to pledge 
the State Department to secure his election, be re- 
pelled the idea by saying, " these were secrets he 
" would keep to himself— he would conceal them from 
" the very hairs of his head ; that if he believed his 
" right hand knew what his left would do on the sub- 
"ject of appointments to oflice, he would cut it ofi' 
" and cast it into the fire," &c. Mr. Buchanan omits 
what General Jackson gives as the conclusion of his 
response, " that, before I would reach the Presidential 
"chair by such means of bargain and corruption, I 
"would see the earth open and swallow both Mr. 
" Clay and his friends, and myself with them." 

General Jackson, when strongly moved, uttered 
his feelings with vehemence, and as his mind fired, 
with cumulative figures. It is not impi-obable, there- 
fore, that the language remembered by Mr. Buchanan 
was employed, and worked up that heat which ex- 
ploded in the denunciation that blew up Mr. Bu- 
chanan's plot. But how can Mr. Buchanan be be- 
lieved, when he says in the next line, that this answer 
to his question was such an one " as he expected to 
receive " — such an one as he soujjht to obtain, not 
for his 05vn, but for the satisfaction of others, and 
begged leave to repeat it! Hosv can this be believed 
when Mr, Buchanan says his object was to get Gen. 
Jackson " to declare that he would not appoint to that 
ojfice the man, hotvever ivorthjj he might be, loho stood at 
the head of the most formidable paH of his political 
enemies." He here expressly admits that the hope 
which induced his application was, that Gen. Jack- 
son would not only deny that he had said he ivould 
appoint Mr. Adams premier, but that he would 
declare he would not appoint him, which he not only 
refused to do, but said he thought very well of Mr. 
Adams; yet, when this hope is blasted, according to 
his own account, he assured the General that it was 
the very thing " he expected," and what he wished 
for the satisfaction of others, to whom he asked leave 
to repeat it ! ! 

Mr. Buchanan involves himself in this contradic- 
tion to escape from a difficulty which threatened 
worse consequences. In the same paper, after tell- 
ing Mr. Markley of the call he meant to make on Gen- 
eral Jackson, he says '^ Mr. Marhley urged m,e to do 
80, and observed, if General Jackson had not deter- 



mined ivhom lie ivould appoint Secretary of State, and 
should say it ivould not be Mr. Adams, it might be 
of great advantage to our cause for us so to declare, 
upon his own authority. We shoukl then be placed 
on the same footing with the Adams inen, and might 
fight them with their own weapons." 

Mr. Buchanan puts these words into Mr. Markley's 
mouth. They obviously exhibit the design formed 
by Mr. Buchanan himself, and for which he sought 
Mr. Markley's co-operation. Mr. Markley denies that 
be used the words. Mr. Buchanan reports them as 
employed in his conversation wth Mr. Markley, and 
both General Jackson and Major Eaton, without any 
knowledge of the conference between Messrs. Bucha- 
nan and Markley, state that the same argument was 
used by Mr. Buchanan in separate conversations with 
them, ending with the same recommendation, "to 
fight the Adams men with their own weapons." Can 
there be a doubt of the truth of General Jackson's 
solemn averment, when it is not only corroborated 
by Major Eaton, but by Mr. Buchanan ? for, after 
ascribing the proposition to Mr. Markley, Mr. Bu- 
chanan admits that he related to General Jackson 
''the substance of the conversation he had held 
with him," but forgets " whether he mentioned his 
name or merely described him as a friend of Mr. 
Clay." And yet Mr. Buchanan has the hardihood to 
say, in the same paper, that until he saw General 
Jackson's letter to Carter Beverly, "the concejition 
never once entered his head " that " he could have 
supposed me capable of expressing the opinion that it 
was right to fight such intriguers with their own 
weapons." 

Is this not a singular affectation of surprise, when 
it is considered that Major Eaton's statement, al- 
though not published, was put in Mr. Buchanan's 
bauds, attributing this thing to him, nearly a year be- 
fore General Jackson's letter to Beverly was written, 
and had not been denied by him. 

Why, then, did he deny the fact which produced 
such an outburst of feeling from Gen. Jackson, that 
he could not have forgotten it, or, if that were pos- 
sible, must have had it revived by Major Eaton's 
reminder? Gen. Jackson's comment, in his letter to 
Mnjor Lewis, divulges the secret of Mr. Buchanan's 
self-contradictions. He wanted "moral courageP 
If he had avowed the wrong which Gen. Jackson re- 
buked and pardoned, it would have brought him at 
once in collision with Mr. Clay, who had made known 
his fixed purpose to call to account any man who 
stood upon equality with him, and who suggested the 
idea that he was capable of being influenced in his 
vote by the tender of the Secretaryship. If Mr. 
Buchanan, then, had acknowledged what he told Major 
Eaton — what he urged on Gen. Jackson — what he 
conned over with Mr. Markley, and what the latter 



11 



says he falsely imputed to him— Mr. Clay would have 
had uo alternative but to hold him responsible. In 
this dilemma he threw himself upon the magnanimity 
of that man, who, he knew, would pardon any weak- 
ness in one who could plead that his fault had origin- 
ated in friendship for him. Mr. Webster was 
enabled, from what had passed around him in Con- 
gress, to fathom the depths of the intrigue as soon as 
Gen. Jackson's letter to Beverly was published, and 
before he had named the man who approached him 
with the overture . Colton gives a letter from Mr. 
Webster to Mr. Clay, about Gen. Jackson's letter to 

Beverly, of June 6th : 

" Boston, July 24, 1827. 
" I have a suspicion that " the respet'talle member of 
Congress " is Mr. Buchanan. If it should turn out so. 
it will place him in an awkward situation, since it 
seems he did recommend a bargain with your friends, 
on the suspicion that such a bargain had been pro- 
posed to them, on ibe part of friends of Mr. Adams. 
I am curious to know how this matter will develop 
itself. I am, always, tiuly yours, 

"Daniel Webster." 

After Mr. Buchanan came out with his response, 
and Mr. Clay had commented on it in his speech at 
Lexington, Kentucky, Mr. Webster remarking, on this 
speech, writes to Mr, Clay : 

" Boston, August 22, 1827. 
" Mr. Buchanan is treated too gently — many per- 
sons think his letter candid — I deem it otherwise. It 
seems to me to be labored very hard to protect the 
General, as far as he could without injury to himself. 
Although the General's friends this way, however, 
affect to consider Buchanan's letter as supporting the 
charge, it is possible the General himself and the 
Nashville commentator, may think otherwise, and 
complain of Buchanan. 

" Ever truly yours, 

" Daniel Webster." 

Mr. Webster saw at the first glance, what all must 
see now, that General Jackson had good reason to 
"complain of Bucha'aan." Mr. Clay, too, repeatedly 
complained of the wrong he suflfered, and, in spite of 
earnest entreaties, felt himself called on at the close 
of hfe to expose Mr. Buchanan's sinister conduct to- 
wards him. Mr. Prentice, the editor of the Louisville 
Journal, the earliest and ablest of Mr. Clay's biogra- 
phers, in an article reviewing General Jackson's and 
Mr. Clay's last declarations on the subject of Mr. Bu- 
chanan's course towards them, after deploring the in- 
justice which he thinks his great friend received at 
tbe hands of the majority of the American people, 
sums up his conclusion with saying that Mr. Buchan- 
an was " the very man by tvhose treachery and false 
hood they tvere induced to do it — ivas himself the only 
guilty 'party — that he pertinaciously sought, first l>y 
tying to Henry Clay, andthen by lying to GeneralJack- 
son, to efect precisely the Hnd of bargain and corrup- 
tion that he caused to le charged upon Olay and 
Adams." 



But the judgment which Gen. Jackson pronounced 
in all his public and private letters touching Mr. Bu- 
chanan's attempt to implicate him in " deep corrup- 
tion;' his adopted son is bid to say " ivasnot any de- 
liberate convi'tion of his mind, as is simply shown by 
his cordial treatment during his whole administra- 
tion—his appointment to Russia," etc. Mr. Buchan- 
an, before he broached his proposal to Gen. Jackson, 
stipulated in advance (in case it was disapproved) 
for his pardon. His design being friendly. Gen. 
Jackson, although he sternly rebuked it at the time, 
did not make it a bar to all subsequent intercourse. 
It was his nature's fault to be too confiding, and to 
men who attached themselves to him with shows of 
friendship he was apt to be indulgent, without look- 
ing into their selfish motives, or relying upon the 
firmness or purity of their characters. He had so 
much reliance on himself and his power to prevent 
ill designs in bad men or mischievous results from 
their attempts, that he never feared betrayal. He 
put Lafitte, the pirate, at the most vital point of his 
defence before New Orleans, and felt that he had no- 
thing to fear from his want of principle while under 
his command. In his Bank war he did not appre- 
hend danger from its friends in tbe cabinet. He even 
trusted them at the head of the Treasury. 

His confidence brought him into difficulties, but he 
had so Jong successfully baffled difficulties, that the 
apprehension of them never interfered with his 
course. His sending Mr. Buchanan abroad would have 
been considered, if he had been a weak and timid 
President, as proof of a design to get rid of a wily, 
unscrupulous intriguer, whose schemes in his own fa- 
vor he had repulsed, and who might be inclined to 
practice his arts against him in resentment of what 
might be construed into an ungrateful return for the 
offer to exert them in his service. This, however, 
never could have influenced Ge:-.eral Jackson in send- 
ing Mr. Buchanan to St. Petersburg. He doubtless 
gave him this mission in compliment to Pennsyl- 
vania, the state which gave the noblest earnest of its 
confidence and affection for himself both before and 
after his defeat in the House of Representatives. 

Mr. Buchanan, notwithstanding the rebuff given 
him by Gen. Jackson, still went with his state in his 
support and was himself returned to Congress. Com. 
ing with this endorsement from his state, and having 
capacity for a diplomat, to refuse the state in his per- 
son would have evinced a sternness which he never 
exhibited towards those who made appeals to his kind 
feelings, based on services rendered to the cause in 
which he was engaged, and especially when associ- 
ated with those of a great state towards which he had 
the deepest sense of gratitude. He gave the mission 
to Mr. Buchanan, I have no doubt, with pleasure. He 
had no fear that Mr. Buchanan would intrigue 



12 



against bis countrj in Russia. He knew that politi- 
cal aovuncemeut was not to be sought in that diiec- 
tio'). Bat if he had been asktd to place Mr. Buchan- 
an in pl>^<itlon where he could barter all the offices of 
the wo^ernaient to reach the Presidency, the General 
would have acted as he did when that gentleman pro- 
posed to take tbat function upon himself to elect a 
Pre-ident in 1825. 

Ti ere have been three epochs in Mr. Buchanan's 
career as a politician, which signally mark his cha- 
racter. They stand out and show that, however de- 
vious h s course, solitary selfish ambition, without 
regtird to any great public cause, has been the guid- 
inar sfar of his life. During the last war with Great 
Britain he gave all his faculties to break down the 
aduiini-tration of Mr. Madison, and give the triumph 
to tbeEngl'sb party io the United States. If success 
had crowned this effort, he would have had the best 
claim of any public man in Pennsylvania to come 
into posver under the auspices of the Hartford Con- 
vention. The failure extinguished his hopes for ten 
years. He next appeared as the zealous friend of the 
great man whose trumpet tones had proclaimed the 
war in the House of Representatives, and of the great 
man who had closed it ia a blaze of glory. He en- 
deavored by corrupt it.trigue to bring about a coali- 
tion which would make one President, the other se- 
cretary, witb a view to the succession, and, establishing 
this double interest for himself as the representative 
of Pennsylvania, to opeu the way to his own advance- 
ment. In this also he failed — losing the c^ntideoce 
of both the illustrious men to whom his scheme would 
bave attached dishonor. His third experiment is now 
before the country. 

For years past he has identified himself with the 
nullifying party of the South, contributed to establish 
their organ and their power in the capital, and by 
this means making them masters of the whole slave- 
holding interest, which sways that section, and 
through it seeks now to domineer over the North. 
He b-irgains now with the politicians who have band- 
ed together, and hope by concert in one section to en- 
able the minority there to subject the majority in the 
other by dividing it. He pledges Pennsylvania to 
abandon her sister stites of the North in her vote for 
him, and pledgeshimself to surrender the rights of the 
North -to sanction the breach of faith that sacrificed 
the compact of peace between the sections— and to 
give the strength of the government to enforce the 
usurjjation that tyrannizes over Kansas. This system 
of controlling the majority by the minority in our 
elective government can only be made to work by 
corruption. The oligarchy of England subjects the 
masses of Ireland to the small body of English land- 
lords there, by buying with money, or peerages, or 
high appointments, the leading men to whom the de- 



mocracy of Ireland confide their interests. The cir- 
cumstances under which so many northern aspr-ints 
among us have betrayed the will of their codsmuents, 
and surrendered their rights to the slave olij:iichy, 
make it obvious that the corrupt influence of otiioial 
barter has taken root here, and certainly the mana- 
gers for the sdiitlicrn minority cmld not employ a 
m jre skilful adept to ply the trade of veu>il inti igue, 
through which they hope to succeed in the Noith, 
than James Buchanan. 

It is necessary to success that a notorious artisle in 
an illicit pursuit should conceal his art. He must put 
off, if possible, the badge that marks him. That Mr. 
Buchanan should endeavor to obliterate the s'gnal 
impression which his experimt-nt on GeneralJuckson 
left, is pardonable ,and would not have provoked com- 
ment from me, had it not been accompanied by an at- 
tempt to disparage Gen. Jackson's character, and that, 
too, by unnatural hands. The adopted son and wit- 
ness is not only brought forward to prove that his 
father's fireside opinion was in direct contradiction to 
that publicly expressed, but he is made to account 
for this moral obliquity by detractiiig from the vigor 
of his mind. It is pretended that "momentary irri^ 
tation'''' could influence him to write down what he 
knew must stand as his deliberate judgment of Mr. 
Buchanan's character, being pronounced when he was 
sensible the grave would soon close over him and 
call him to answer for its conscientiousnc s. 

To impress the public with the belief that Gen. 
Jackson's understanding was impaired, and thus in- 
directly weaken the force of his opinion, the adopted 
son, by way of excusing himself for wasting the 
estate left him, is induced to say : 

"When General Jackson returned home at the end 
of his Presidency, he had not so much as a hundred 
dollars left of his salary. Ilis generous entprtain- 
meuts at Washiutiton to friends and to the public left 
him but little. The profits of his estate weie also 
consumed. There was scarcely a day after bis return 
that his house was not thronged with visitors from 
different portions of the country. The proceeds of 
his estate here could not, and did not, meet his ex- 
penses. Under the circumstances, and by the advice 
(jf friends, he deemed it advisable to make a purchase 
in the sSouth to raise cotton. Under his direction, i 
went South and made the purchase of a place tba,t 
had been recommended to him at $2-3,000, and afier- 
wards a small tract additional at the cost of $2 .500. 
To meet these and other smaller liabilities, he secured 
loans from the bank and individuals to the amount of 
neatly $30,000. He left me his estate saddled with 
this heavy liability, all drawing interest. I have 
been thus particular in order to disabu!?e the public 
mind of the charge made by the Patriot, and coniuiu- 
nicated no doubt by private sources, that 1 bad in- 
curred the heavy debt that had rested upon the Her- 
mitage property " 

None knew better than the advisers of the indi- 
vidual who puts his name to this paper, that General 
Jackson was a most exact and jiunctual business 



IS! 



11)8(1 — fbat heabhorred dfbt— never InvoTred liJmself 
in <ine that be had not prepared the means to pay ; 
none know better than they that the embarrassment 
and ruiD of the estate left the adopted son was the 
work of the latter, exclusively. To defend General 
Jackron fr i m f be imputed incapacity — the want of 
care in his expenditures, and the want of circum- 
spection as to making obligations, and judgment and 
energy in providing and applying the means to dis- 
charge 'hem — I am compelled to give details of a 
transaction to which Mr. Rives and myself were par- 
ties, and to which Mr Jackvou refers. A simple 
SUiement will show how unjustly General Jackson's 
memory is assailed in the paragraph quoted. It is 
but a repetition of the insidious rumors spread by 
the newt^papers inimical to him, aJew years after his 
return to the Hermitage, 

They huggested that he had inextricably involved 
himself in dtbt, and Ibaf, like another chief of the 
democracy — Mr. Jelierson — he would probably apply 
for a law to enable him to get his estate disposed of 
by lottery to pay his debts. Seeing these altempts 
to mortify and harrass him, and suspecting that his 
adopted son, who had been creating debts without 
his knowledge before he left Washington, might have 
contracted engagements which the General desired 
to discbarge, I wrote to him that I had money which 
he could command. This was his reply to my offer, 
the first pait of the letter being on other subjects ; 

" Hermitage, February ?, 1842. 
* * * * "Now, my dear Mr. Blair, i am truly 
happy to (ind that your pecuaiary matters are so 
prosperous, and may God grant ttiat tbat prosperity 
may continue to you and yours iu all time to come 
I will with all Candor state to vou, that 1 have Mi 
some pecuniary pressure that we have tiad to make 
some peconiiry sacrifices lu selling some yaluuble 
properly, and that I aru not yet entirely free from 
tbem, and tbat a loan would be a convenience to u- 
for a short ti'ue, »thicb ne nouid well secure. I bo'd 
my homes'ead unencumbered, and d) not owe in my 
ewD right five huedred dollars, Andrew owns a first 
rate tract on the .Wississ'ppi river, of 1180 acres, and 
ori the two plantation.'j vre own about one hun(jred and 
fifty negroes, old, middle aged and young. I could 
not stand by and see a combination of sharpers, swin- 
dlers — an unprincipled combination as they were — 
strip atid harrass Andrew, who bad been drawn into 
endorsements ftir them, and otherwise imposed upon, 
without stepping forward to relieve from the grasp of 
Such men, Andrew, at all hazards of property. These 
liabilities amounti-d to more than I at first anticipated. 
By great eserf.ons, he is free from all these debts, and 
there only remains due the instalments upon the plan- 
tation upon the Mississippi, which is now in aprodiic 
tive state, and will in a few years pay all liabilities. 
****** 

But tbe means to meet the future instalments on the 
place we were obliged to use, to meet those swind- 
ling debts brought on Andrew by a clique of sharp- 
ers, and some of the instalments become due before 
another crop. Now, my dear Mr. Ijlair, if you have 
the money to lend we will, on an interest of six per 



cent., or on geTen-»-take as mueb as will meet tbe 
presf-inir demands that may present themsel ves. But, 
my dear sir, unless the loan proposed, payii'g inter- 
est annually, would be as profitable to yon as any 
other you could make of it, I would not receive it — I 
have never injured a friend in pecuniary matters, or 
otherwise, and I wdl never do it for the shoi t time I 
have to live. 1 wish you, with the candor of a friendj 
to say to me whether yon have money to invest upon 
interest, and for vyhat length of time yiiu could loan 
it, receiving tbe interest the first year, and then the 
principal and interest by iustaluuentsi The lo.in se- 
cured by personal or real security, undoubted, to 
cover If, we would freely give seven per cent, interest 
on a loan for three years or four. On tbe rece'pt of 
this please write me— 1 cannot borrow of a friendl 
unless upon just terms to him. 

" I am, as usual, sincerely your friend, 

'• Ajndebw Jaceson," 

*' Hesmitage, February 24, 1842. 
'* My dear Sir .•****! accept of tbe loan 
you have so generously offered me — a liberality and 
ffendship which I will cherish in my bosom as long 
as life lasts, and bequeath it to my adopted children. 
It shall be secured in such a wav, that life or death 
nor all the calamities that may bef'al a nation or ia' 
dividual, except earthquakes, cannot deprive yon o- 
of your principal and interest, and should I live, yctj 
will receive it with tbat panctuality that I have 
always met borrowed money. This loan will enable 
me to meet all Andrew's liabilities, and the annuaj 
crops will meet th's loan, 7vith surety, ev^n at the pre- 
sent low price of cotton — place me at ease, and s-ecur© 
to him and his dear little oaes and charming wife an 
ample fortune. ****** l sincerely tbank 
you for the terms of sijc percent, interest; no such 
indulgence could be here obtained, and this shows 
the friendship and liberality of the act. * * * * 
" Your friend, Andrew Jackson." 

Mr. Rives united vritb me, ihat the loan might not 
bear on one alone, and to carry out the des'gn that 
the debt should never be a burden to General Jack- 
son. We authorized him to draw for the sum he 
wanted. From the account which Andrew at first 
gave of his commitments, he sujiposed §10,000 would 
be suflicient, but some time after it was discovered 
that bis first schedule of debts disclosed little more 
than half of them, an! that tbe provision wb'ch he 
had made for paying for tbe plantation for Andrew 
was absorbed in meeting his old obligations. Eight 
thousand dollars more were then advanced, and the 
proceeds of the Mississippi plantation, well supplied 
with hands, were set apart for the gradual extmctioa 
of the loan. 

It was a most ample provision, but it was not un- 
der the General's eye, and was entrusted to Andrew 
and the overseer. Everything was a fiiilure, and the 
General then ordered the plantation to be sold and hi& 
hands brought back. It was sold for a sum which 
would have extinguished all tbe General's obliga- 
tions, including the loan but his death having lefH 
the disposal of the means with Andrew, instead of 
employing them as directed, and as he promised Mr. 
Rives he would when he obtained a release of the 



14 



mortgage to dispose of the plantation, he diverted the lien on his property to secure it for the henefit a 
them to the purchase of an iron works, in which he himself and wife, during their joint lives. Their only 
both sunk the Mississippi plantation and creoted new I daughter is married to a rich and very respectable 
deb(3, exceeding fifty thousand dollars. He then ! gentleman — one son is provided with an appointment 
wrote to me that a Mr. Washincrtoc, from whom he at West Point— the other nearly grown and educated, 
had borrowed a very large cum, secured by a deed of By saving one half of the Hermitage, tract and all, 
trust on the Hermitjige and the negroes, (second to | the servants for the family for a term of lives, likely 
that held by Mr. Rives and myself,) was pressing for i to last some forty years, and putting beyond the 
the sale of the property, and requested me to write a ! power of Mr. Jackson to waste it oa his hopeless 
letter to prevail wiih the legislature of Tennessee to schemes, the steady increase in the v.ilue of the real 
purchase so much of the estate as would liberate him property made more rapid by the state improvement 
from debt. I addressed such a letter to him, putting of ihe adjacent portion, together with the increase of 
tny interest in it, and that of Mr. Rives, entirely at servants during the life estates, would make it easy 



the disposal of the legislature, and wrote another, ad- 
dressed to the Hon. Cave Johnson, for the purpose of 
being put into the hands of the members of the kgis- 
iature, Mr. Johnson replied : 

" Nashville, November G, 1855. 
" Dear Sir : I received your letter some ten days 
ago, and delayed a reply, hoping to be able to give 
you some precise information in relation to our move- 
ments here. ** *** had united with me very earn- 
estly, before we received your letter, in trying to 
enlist members of the legislature in the cause — ** * 
*** was delighted with your letter, and I have 
placed it in the hands of Col. Kison, a devoted friend 
of General Jackson, personally and politically, and a 
representative from the county of Lawrence — Col. 
Travis, a representative from Henry, enters into our 
projects with all bis soul ; but I must C')nfes8 that I 
have but little hopes of success. * ** *****. 
"I am sincerely and truly your friend, 

" Cave Johnson." 

It did succeed, bowever. The legislature voted 
$50,000 for five hundred acres, to include the Tomb 
and Hermitage. On this, Mr. Juckson sent me a 
schedule of his debts, sho vying that, including the loan 
to Blair and Rives, they amounted to $72, 500; and after 
summing up his means after the sale of the remainder 
of the estate, he adds : " Thus you will perceive I 
shall scarcely get out of debt, without you and my 
friend Mr. Rives will consent to oulyreceive the prin- 
cipal of your debt at present, and let tns work out the 
balance, if God spares me in kind Providence to do 
so, if not, make it over to my wife aud children, for 
my kind friend Mr. Blair, (I call you that ) for you 
and Mr. Rives have proved yourselves truly so, in all 
my diflicultiesin not pressing or suing me, when 1 
have been torn and swindled and harrassed almost 
to death in the last tew years." 

Mr. Jackson, after the purchase was conopleted by 
the state, sent on state bonds, from which $16,800 of 
the §30,000 due Blair and Rives v.'as realized, and 
for which he was credited $18,000. 

His proposition was that we should release the lien 
on the remainder of the estate for the $14,000 of the 
loan, that he might sell it to pay his other debts. I 
knew that his extrication from old debts was only to 
BJake way for new ones, and therefore preferred using 



to return the original advance, and leave behind a 
considerable inheritance. Instead, therefore, of 
giving up the property bond for our debt, to pay 
other debts of Mr. Jackson, if that were possible, and 
assist him in a new career of speculation in iron 
works, lead mines, &c., we thought it best to act 
on our own experience of his capacity, and the opi- 
nion of a gentleman of Nashville, and one fi'iendly to 
him, from whom we had this hint : 

"He (Mr. Jackson) thinks that the surplus coming 
from the bonds will pay all his outstanding debts ; 
but wbether he is correct or not no one can tell, as he 
knows no more about his affairs ilun a child, and is 
not able to attend to them much belter than one." 

After consulting Mr. Rives, therefore, I wrote as 
follows to the Hon. Cave Johnson, who had interested 
himself with me in getting General Jackson's grave 
given to the guardianship of the state, and seemed 
also to share my anxiety to provide for the family^ : 

"Silver Speinq, May 2, 1856. 
* * * " I am anxious to see Mrs Jackson, 
whom the General loved so well, and for whom I feel 
on his, as well as her own account, a great interest, 
well and securely provided for. I talked the matter 
over with Mr. Rives to-dav, aud told him I was will- 
ing to contribute my share of the means to effect the 
object, and he said he would assent also, and contri- 
bute to the plan, which was to sell out the whole of 
his property under our deed of trust, buying it in 
and holding it in the hands of trustees, first for the 
benefit of Mrs. Jackson and himselfi and then to be 
subject to our debt, unless it shall have been paid. I 
am no lawyer, and know not how such a trust could 
be created, but my idea is, through our meuns, by 
which we still have a litn on the property, to make of 
it a future ^uppoit for them during' their joint lives, 
and then on the payment of what may be due us, the 
whole to revert to their heirs. I am ready on my 
part to sink a portion of what might come to me of 
the fund, and this at once by rele-ise, but I do not 
think this anything more than so much thrown away, 
for other debts would soon emerge to take the pro- 
perty. 

" i wish you would have a talk with » * * * 
on this subjpc*, and if he and you think anything use- 
ful can be done in this way, l hope you will sound 
Mrs. Jackson us to the scheme prtiposed, and if she 
and her family think well of it, they may persuade 
Mr. Jackson to come into it. Let me hear from you 
about this matter. 

" Vour friend, P. P. Blaie." 



15 



f his ietter was received about the time that my 
letter to the New York meeting appeared, exposing 
the conspiracy of Mr. Calhoun with Mr. Polk and bis 
followers to destroy the organ set up by Gen. Jack- 
son at Washingtoa and itjstal that of nullification in 
its stead. Mr. Buchanan and his colleague and espe- 
cial friend of the cabinet were both implicated in this 
original movement, which embodied the South in a 
sectional party to command the North. I did not 
suppose our political warfare would have the efTect to 
break the truce between us, which had for its object 
the care of Gen. Jackson's remains and his adopted 
attachments. 

But I mistook my man. Mr, Buchanan's colleague 
seems to have embraced the opportunity which his 
introduction into the concerns of the Hermitaee gave 
hiffif to attack me from that quarter. Instead of an- 
swering my letter of charitable intents, and consulting 
with the family and the attorney, and Mr. Rives and 
myself, as to the best form of relief, the first intima- 
tion I had of changed feelings on the part of those I 
was laboring to serve, was the insidious letter signed 
■with Andrew Jackson's name, charging me with 
breach of trust for publishing Gen. Jackson's corre- 
spondence without PAxthority, Jtfy name was not, at 



first, mentioned, because those wko assailed me kiie'ST 
that the immediate subject of complaint (the estracl; 
from Gen. Jackson's letter inculpating Mr. Buchanan 
about the corrupt bargain he proposed) was neither 
written to me nor published by me. This not being 
not'ced by me, was followed by another, signed An- 
drew Juckson, denouncing me, by name as a violator 
of Gen. Jackson's confidence and the rights which his 
adopted son asserted over his papers. 

How my good friend Andrew, whose last letter to 
me was an effusion of gratitude, was brought to this 
point I can only conjecture. I never gave him an un- 
kind look or an unkind word, or did an unkind 
tbing to him or any of his family. 

If the new friends for whom I have been thrown 
away, and my kindness rejected, make good, out of 
their own means, the hopes they may have inspired, 
I shall rejoice in it for the sake of Mrs. Jackson, who 
is one of the most, lovely and excellent of her ses. 
She was "a ruinistering angel "to General Jackson 
during all the years of illness and anxiety which, 
after his retirement from the Presidency, closed his 
life. F. P. BLAIR. 

SifcVKR Sprsng, Aufrust 15, 1856. 



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